Land of the Lost Gift Cards

Picture this: you visit a restaurant or clothing store and just as you’re about to make a purchase, you remember you have a gift card. The cashier waits somewhat patiently as you dig through your bag or wallet trying to find the gift card among sticks of gum and various receipts. Giving up, you tell the cashier to ring you up. Having paid full price and with bags in hand, it now becomes your mission to find that gift card.

As a result, you get home and search drawers, pants, and more. After a couple of hours, your home is turned upside down and you still haven’t found it. Sound familiar? Welcome to the land of lost gift cards.

What happens when you lose a gift card?

That $50 gift card to the clothing store you can’t find is $50 out of your pocket, and that $50 is called breakage. When businesses issue a gift card they factor in breakage as a percentage of redemption rates. The gift card market is a $160 billion a year industry. The SEC estimates that gift card breakage accounts for 2% - 4%. So, when you take $160 billion and multiply that by an average of 3%, you get just under $5 billion in lost gift card value.

What to do if you lost a gift card

First, did you write down the gift card number and pin on a separate piece of paper? Secondly, did you keep the original receipt? If the answer is no to either of these questions, then there’s nothing you can really do. In order to reclaim a lost gift card, retailers require one or both of these pieces of information in order to issue you a new one.

A simple solution to lost gift cards

There are a few things you can to when buying or receiving gift cards to safeguard them. But why bother having another thing to keep track of when there’s an alternative solution, GiftYa.

GiftYa allows you to send a gift to local and national businesses across the U.S. From restaurants to boutiques to pet salons, you can a gift from the comfort of your home. Instead of receiving a plastic card, GiftYa is sent virtually via text.

What’s more, when the person you sent the gift to receives it, he or she connects it to their Visa or Mastercard. When they visit the retailer you chose, all they have to do is use that Visa or Mastercard during checkout and then your gift amount is credited to their bank statement. This type of technology and offer is called a card-linked offer and has been around for a few years in loyalty programs that you’re familiar with.

For instance, you joined a dining reward program. You link your Visa card to the program and every time you use it; you earn points which can be redeemed for cash back or other savings offers. These offers are tied directly to that Visa card, so you never lose them. GiftYa works the same way.

In short, when you send a gift with GiftYa, your recipient can’t lose it because it’s connected to their debit or credit card. There’s no physical card to keep track of. Additionally, you can keep track of the gifts you send in your account dashboard so you can make sure they’re being used.

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In short, you don’t have to keep adding to the land of lost gift cards. Ensure you gift never gets lost when you text a gift to friends ,family members, and colleagues with GiftYa.